The NFL, Bounties and the Drive to Hide the Violence

There is no morality in war—but that doesn’t
stop our political and military leaders from insisting otherwise.
Invariably, the enemy consists of immoral, medieval cave dwellers who
respect neither human life nor the sacred rules of combat. Our side, on
the other hand, engages in “surgical strikes” to limit “collateral
damage” in a noble effort to liberate the shackled from tyranny. They
tell us to ignore the innocent killed in drone attacks, the piling body
counts, and just remember that our enemies are savages because they
don’t play by civilized rules.

This Orwellian staple came to mind when news broke of the NFL’s latest public relations debacle: that the New Orleans Saints defense targeted opponents with a “bounty” system.
Normally we should have little patience with comparing the reality of
war to a game like football. But here the metaphor works because we have
that same heightened hypocrisy where the overlords of official violence
condemn the carnage outside of their control.

Because former New Orleans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams
instituted this “bounty program” that allegedly involved paying players
for “knockout” or “cart-off” hits, the Saints will face an avalanche of
suspensions, fines and penalties. The players involved and Coach
Williams might, according to Sports Illustrated,
even be liable for criminal prosecution. They will also have to carry
the shame of “all that’s wrong with sports” as columnists try to
out-fulminate their competitors. [There are so many overwrought words to
choose from, but the winner of the Scarlett O’Hara Award has to go to
Bill Plaschke for calling these matters “sanctioned evil.”]

The NFL is of course, aghast and appalled. In the words of Commissioner Roger Goodell,
“The [anti-]bounty rule promotes two key elements of NFL football:
player safety and competitive integrity. It is our responsibility to
protect player safety and the integrity of our game, and this type of
conduct will not be tolerated. We have made significant progress in
changing the culture with respect to player safety and we are not going
to relent. We have more work to do and we will do it.”

And here we have the problem.

This is the same Roger Goodell who once employed a league doctor that denied a connection between football and concussions.

This is the same Goodell whose sport sees its retired players die
decades before the typical American male; whose employees face patterns
of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and suicidal depression.

This is the same Goodell whose sport saw former Chicago Bear great
Dave Duerson, crippled by mental illness, end his life by shooting
himself in the chest. Why the chest? He wanted his brain studied so the
world would know what professional football did to him.

This is the same Goodell who almost cancelled the entire 2011 season
because he wanted the players to have to endure two more games. More
games means more money, health be damned. In other words, Roger Goodell
isn’t exactly Gandhi here. He’s more like General Westmoreland,
insisting that all is moving in the right direction while napalm stings
the nose.

Goodell is nervous because if there is anything that could endanger
this golden goose, it’s the idea that the three and a half hours of
commodified violence we hold so dear might have an ugly and invisible
human cost. Owners want us to imagine that players are like “Cleatus the NFL on Fox robot”:
an indestructible, faceless, cyborg. If we start to register the real
effects of NFL Sunday and that encourages generation of parents take
their own children off this assembly line of concussions, the league’s
cultural and financial dominance will be in peril.

The players’ response has also been in line with this effort to keep
the realities of violence out of the public eye. Almost to a person,
they have stepped forward to say, in the words of one, “ ‘Pay for performance’ systems are a time-honored locker room tradition.”

On the NFL’s website, former Saint Darren Sharper is quoted as saying, “I think this is something that, from when I got in the league in 1997, has happened thousands and thousands of times over.”

NFL.com also quotes a series of Twitter messages from players, best summed ex NFL player Damien Woody who tweeted, “This ‘bounty’ program happens all around the league…not surprising.”

They even quote New York Jet Trevor Pryce, who said to the New York Times,
“It’s pretty much standard operating procedure. It made our special
teams better. I know dudes who doubled their salary from it. Trust me,
it happens in some form in any locker room. It’s like a democracy, the
inmates governing themselves.”

Leave aside that curious but revealing characterization of the NFL as
a “democracy” whose citizens are inmates. The NFL’s website—think Pravda
with better graphic design—seems to be saying by highlighting these
comments, both “this violence will not stand” and “this is just the way
things happen in the locker room.” All the sports radio debates have
been framed the same way. One side is appalled that violent motivators
like a “bounty system” exists. The other rolls their eyes and says, “It
happens on every team. Get over it.”

Neither side gets at the truth. This is an inherently dirty game with
a real body count. Its main business isn’t a race to the Super Bowl but
to present raw violence in a way that’s palatable for mass consumption.
The more comfortable we are with violence, the more successful the NFL
becomes. The minute we squirm, they lose. Like war, as long as the
reporters are embedded and no one sees the coffins, business can proceed
as planned. The tragedy is that often its only after players retire
that they see the reality of an unequal partnership where only one side
really walks away from the table.